Why reference?

Referencing is a very important part of your assignment. Not only it is crucial that you accurately reference all sources of information consulted during the course of your research (for example, journal articles and textbooks), you will be awarded marks for your referencing (usually 5 to 10 per cent of the total marks). Referencing is important for the following reasons:

Referencing acknowledges the copyrighted work of others

Including references demonstrates to your tutor the depth and breadth of your research

If necessary, accurate references will enable your sources to traced and verified

You will avoid failing your assignment due to plagiarism

Turnitin

Turtitin is the plagiarism detection software you will most likely use to submit your assignments.

Turnitin is accessed via Moodle, and the following help guides may be of use:

RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based bibliography and database manager which allows you to create your own personal database of reference by importing references from online databases. You can then use these references when writing your assignments in Microsoft Word and automatically format a bibliography or reference list using the Write-N-Cite tool.

To access RefWorks follow this link. On the resulting screen, where you seen OpenAthens login boxes, click the "Alternative login" link you will see underneath the login boxes. Don't try to put anything into the login boxes. On the following screen, type "Bolton" into the search box. Then, on the list of institutions you see, chose the SECOND University of Bolton option. Enter your Bolton network ID and password when prompted to do so. You will then be taken to RefWorks. The first time you use RefWorks, you will need to create an individual account so that you can start to store your references. After you have created an account, you just need to access electronic resources as normal.

For help using RefWorks, look at the Help sections within RefWorks itself.

A version of RefWorks exists within Discover@Bolton which you may prefer.

Other referencing tools

Other types of referencing software besides RefWorks are available; this list represents a very small sample: